Wednesday, November 21, 2012

I am pleased to welcome Sherrie to my blog. I want to take a moment to say, I think Sherrie is a very talented writer. I've had the pleasure of sharing a few writing experiences with Sherrie a couple years ago and she most definitely left an imprint on me. I've just recently Beta read her story, Wolfs Bane, and I'm a huge fan of wolves and her characters were very good. It's a cute short story that I'm honored to have been able to read.

So with out further delay....Please welcome, Sherrie!!

Question of the week – What inspires you to write?

I actually don’t need inspiration as such; I’ve been driven
to tell stories almost my entire life. Part of it comes from being an only
child for the first six years of my life and living about in the middle of no
where. I had to make up my friends and use my imagination to create imaginary play
dates. I didn’t actually start writing my ‘imaginings’ until I was in college,
taking creative writing.

I found inspiration from everywhere and everyone, nothing
was off-limits. I could people-watch for an afternoon, making up stories about
perfect strangers based on what they were wearing, what group they were in (or
if they were alone) or even what they were doing.

These days, I find myself finding my stories in my dreams. I
can usually remember my dreams, or at least a small part of one and that little
germ of a story can blossom into a full novella or heck, even novel.
Discussions with other authors and readers can also give me an idea for a story
and once that idea takes hold, it usually won’t let me go.

I’ve got at least a dozen main characters clamoring in my
head right now, all wanting their story told. They all want to be heard and
goddess-willing, I’ll get to each of them in time.

Check out Sherrie's short stories in Evernight Vol 1 and Evernight Vol 2. She also has a stand alone, Twenty-Four Hours that I gave 5 stars!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

It is my great pleasure to introduce to you L.S. Broomfield. She is an amazingly talented author who I share the pleasure of making a duet short story with. Her current work that is under review is a book about her dear warlocks, The Cruentus - Rise to Power and it's an excellent read. I can't wait for the publisher to accept it. She's my first Canadian friend and I just adore her. I hope you enjoy her blog.

The Wonders Around me.

Do
you want to know what I hear around me as I sit in my bedroom? Nothing. Mind
you that is an amazing feat all on its own in a house of seven on the best of
days but I’m not talking about the normal sounds of a home being lived in. I’m
talking about the world past my window. My little piece of Labrador.

Well,
in my neck of the woods right now, old man winter is making his appearance. So
sporadically, I’ll hear a snowmobile or, “ski-doo”, as it makes its way through
one of the trails and then serenity and quiet once more. I don’t hear the
clamoring of traffic through my window and I can sit on my bed and look out my
window at the stars in the night sky. And on a clear night I may even see the wondrous
Northern Lights. Lucky right?

But
don’t confuse the quiet of this great land with the image most people havethat everyone living in Labrador rests their
heads at night in a igloo; or that it’s winter year round. On the contrary,
Labrador is glorious no matter the season—and yes we have four of those. Mother
Nature has richly blessed this land and its people. We are an amazingly knit
together culturally diverse gathering of people that each lead our separate
lives. This thought makes me smile and causes me to beam with Labrador pride;
though all different and separate, in the midst of turmoil and tragedy everyone
somehow manages to work together to help. Such giving and kind hearted people.

Don’t
get me wrong; there are things that I would change but there are also things I
wouldn’t change for anything. Each person has a differing opinion about
Labrador; some good, some bad. But there is always something they just love.
Breath-taking scenery, wondrous things that readily show the fingerprint of
God; from man-made to shaped at creation.There is always something to pull at the heart strings and maybe even
make you fall in love with this place to keep coming back.

Harry
Martin said it best in the song that he wrote, A Land Called Labrador:

There's a land of boundless
beauty,
Where the untamed rivers run,
And majestic snow-capped mountains,
Rise to meet the morning sun.

There are silent sunlit
valleys,
Undiscovered, unexplored;
It's a home for free of spirit,
It's a land called Labrador.

Legends of our people spoken,
In the language of the land,
Tell of hard times and injuries,
Strangers would not understand.

As they trapped across the tundra,
From the highlands to the shore,
From us all the land is broken,
And our people suffered more.

Let her mountains shine in
glory,
Let her unspoiled waters flow;
Let her children live in freedom,
In the valleys of the snow.

Lift your voices, sons and
daughters,
Like you've never done before;
Let your song rise through the darkness,
In this land called Labrador.”

I
am a Newfoundlander, born and raised. Nothing will ever change that. But, I’ll
interject and end with this: I may not have been born in Labrador, my first
cries were on the rock but I fully consider myself a “Newfoundlander and
Labradorian” to the core, through and through.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

I am pleased to welcome Miss Johanna Rae to my blog. First off let me say her book, The Mercenary is one of the best book's I haveread in years. It was AMAZING!!! I strongly suggest you go out and buy it.

All the things that make me
ME

Johanna Rae

When I became pregnant with my first child, I had a
few challenges and had to leave work very early on in the pregnancy. Many of my
friends and family asked me what on earth I was going to do to fill in the days
until I became a mother. They seemed to think I would be bored out of my mind
by the time the baby came but they could not have been more wrong.

I have a multitude of hobbies which are almost all within the realm of
creativity. Until this point I’d had to pick and choose what I gave my time to
as I balanced my job and marriage. Now I suddenly had time upon my hands. My
two biggest passions have always been writing and art. Back then writing was
just a hobby, an outlet of unrecognized potential. I still have some of the
stories I wrote during that time and I hope one day to go back and polish them
up. The only thing putting me off is that they are all handwritten in
notebooks. You see, back then I didn’t have a laptop either. For now they are
in the ‘one day’ pile.

It’s amazing how much can change about a person in a few short years.
Since having children I have not only been granted an unexpected perspective of
the world, I have also learned a lot about myself. When I say this I do not
mean I learned the hard way that babies mean sleepless nights. I do not mean
that I had to search within myself for patience I had not previously possessed
either. I love being a parent and yes that has been a journey. What I did not expect
was to learn so much about myself as a woman along the way.

In my early days of motherhood I suffered from post natal
depression.In dealing with that and
striving to be the best mother that I could be, I did a lot of soul searching.
And as my child grew and two more joined his side, I began to explore the woman
that I was beyond motherhood. I guess you could say that I came out of my
shell.

I continued to sketch and paint, and of course write. Now that my
creativity had been unleashed, I expanded it further, and took up hobbies such
as jewelry making, scrapbooking, music and knitting. There was never any time
to get bored, for if I was not spending time with my children I was busy
creating. I’m a deep thinker which leads to a lot of analysis. I’ve found that
no matter which creative outlet I choose, it in turn inspires something else.

Ultimately as I have allowed myself to grow, the writing has started
to overshadow everything else. I’m okay with this as I believe it is probably
the largest piece of who I am.Now that
the center of things has shifted I find that everything feeds the writer in me.
Whether I am sketching or camping with my husband and children, my subconscious
is always looking for the next story.I’m okay with that too. Hi, my name is Johanna Rae and I’m a writer.

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Ashley's Business Partner

Stacy Moran is the Co-Authors of the Sekhmet's Revenge. Stacy and Ashley have been friends over four years and together they have helped each other grow as writers and individuals. They are unsure of where it is going but are excited at what the future holds. Since the start of their publishing company, The Art of Safkhet, new worlds and adventures have opened up for them and they can't wait to see where they get to travel too. Click for Stacy's Facebook Page and Blogspot

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Ashley's Peep'sBLOGS

Knights of Geekdom is a podcast/blog hosted by Ashley's Husband and a couple of his friends. It's adult geared and a bit of fun. Ashley on occasion hops in as a guest.

Texas Travel Girl is run by one of Ashley's friends from college. They travel to different comic events together and have known each other going on about 9 years. Check out her place if you want to sight-see around Texas! Her new blog is The Cubicle Escapee for all non-Texas Travelings.

Tevya is a dear friend of Ashley's. She is one of the owners of this book review site, it has some amazing authors come through it and if you are looking for a good book to pick up here is your spot to find one.